GUEST EDITORIAL: Leaders:You must cooperate

President Barack Obama came to East Tennessee on Tuesday to outline his proposal for a "grand bargain" to increase middle-class jobs.

At this point, most Americans would settle for modest cooperation.

Obama toured the Amazon.com distribution center in Chattanooga and gave a speech on a renewed effort to spur on a stubbornly sluggish recovery.

The centerpiece of his plan is to slash federal taxes on corporations while closing loopholes. America's corporate tax rate is among the highest in the developed world, and policymakers on both sides of the aisle agree it needs to be cut. Obama's proposal would reduce the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 28 percent, with manufacturing concerns getting a further break to 25 percent.

In exchange, the president wants Congress to appropriate more money for much-needed infrastructure improvements and other measures aimed at creating middle-class jobs.

Republicans immediately rejected the overture, though it runs counter to the party's philosophy. Cutting corporate taxes is a GOP policy staple, and many Americans are understandably puzzled that the Republican leadership would spurn one of its party's own goals just because a Democratic president proposed a way to achieve it.

Once again, extreme and inflexible partisanship is crippling the country, not only in tangible ways such as Capitol Hill gridlock, but in symbolic ways as well.

Tennessee's Republican state leaders avoided being seen with Obama. Gov. Bill Haslam opted to attend a previously scheduled event celebrating the opening of a prison drug treatment program in Morgan County. U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, a former Chattanooga mayor, stayed in Washington, D.C. U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, whose district includes Chattanooga, flew back to Washington a few hours before Air Force One arrived.

The GOP snubbing of the Democratic president was unbecoming, especially when one considers that Tennessee receives more in federal spending than it pays in federal taxes, Haslam is trying to finagle a deal with the administration on Medicaid expansion and Fleischmann's district is home to the largest federal construction project in the state's history, the Uranium Processing Facility at Oak Ridge's Y-12 nuclear weapons plant.

Surely one of the state's top Republican officeholders could have shown up out of respect for the office of president. At least Corker had the manners to issue an apologetic statement.

Republicans can work with Democrats to resolve the thorny issues of the day without abandoning their principles, and reducing corporate taxes is a good place to start.

Corker and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander have worked with Democrats recently to forge compromises on immigration reform and the use of filibusters. They should put the same effort into crafting a bipartisan deal to cut the corporate tax rate. Those on the far right and the far left will criticize them, but the vast majority of Americans in the middle will appreciate their leadership.

- Knoxville News Sentinel

Editor's Note: The Cheers editorial is becoming a Monday feature. Look for it in this spot on Aug. 5

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GUEST EDITORIAL: Leaders:You must cooperate

President Barack Obama came to East Tennessee on Tuesday to outline his proposal for a 'grand bargain' to increase middle-class jobs.